Vanillyl amine

Aryl alcohol oxidase from the ligninolytic fungus Pleurotus eryngii had a strong preference for benzylic and allylic alcohols, showing activity on phenyl-substituted benzyl, cinnamyl, naphthyl and 2,4-hexadien-l-ol [103,104]. Another aryl alcohol oxidase, vanillyl alcohol oxidase (VAO) from the ascomycete Penicillium simplicissimum catalyzed the oxidation of vanillyl alcohol and the demethylation of 4-(methoxymethyl)phenol to vanillin and 4-hydro-xybenzaldehyde. In addition, VAO also catalyzed deamination of vanillyl amine to vanillin, and hydroxylation and dehydrogenation of 4-alkylphenols. For the oxidation of 4-alkylphenol, the ratio between the alcohol and alkene product depended on the length and bulkiness of the alkyl side-chain [105,106]. 4-Ethylphenol and 4-propylphenol, were mainly converted to (R)-l-(4 -hydroxyphenyl) alcohols, whereas medium-chain 4-alkylphenols such as 4-butylphenol were converted to l-(4 -hydroxyphenyl)alkenes. 

As VAO is able to perform an oxidative deamination of capsaicin-derived vanillyl amine, vanillin can be produced by the pathway described in the previous subsection. Van den Heuvel et al. [83] pointed out this biocatalytic route of synthesis in 2001 using penicillin G acylase to obtain vanillyl alcohol from natural capsaicin (Scheme 22.6). As the vanillin obtained can be labelled as natural. 

Scheme 22.6 Oxidative deamination of capsaicin-derived vanillyl amine and formation of vanillin [83] VAO vanillyl alcohol oxidase...

---